Appeals Court Back Broadcasters In FCC Dispute

On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a long-anticipated ruling in a dispute between the FCC and TV programmers, including CBS Corp., 21st Century Fox, Walt Disney Co. and Viacom Inc.

The LA Times report the testy dispute did not delve into whether the FCC should allow two huge media mergers to go forward. Rather, the programmers' case became something of a sideshow, complicating the government's processing of information that it had sought in its merger reviews.

In a win for broadcasters who sued the FCC last fall, the appeals court on Friday ruled that the FCC's demand that CBS, Disney, Fox and the other programmers reveal sensitive contract information to third parties was flawed.

The FCC had sought the information as part of its review of two media mergers announced last year: AT&T's application to acquire DirecTV and Comcast Corp.'s now scuttled bid for Time Warner Cable.

"We are delighted the court sided with broadcast networks and the National Assn. of Broadcasters in protecting highly confidential information from being widely disseminated during merger reviews," NAB spokesman Dennis Wharton said in a statement.

Even though the FCC set up a mechanism to protect confidential business information from being widely disseminated, broadcasters worried that their rivals were taking advantage of the situation to gain easy access to sensitive details about affiliate fees and other contract points.

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